With sorrow filling their hearts at the thought of Jesus leaving them, He told his disciples that it was actually to their advantage that He go away. I can only imagine that they considered His leaving anything but an advantage for them. But Jesus told them that it was indeed the truth. His leaving would be to their advantage because it would mean the coming of the Helper. If He did not leave the Helper would not come. But if Jesus left, Jesus Himself would send the Helper. As God the Father had sent the Son out of love, God the Son would send the Holy Spirit. As Jesus had not spoken on His own initiative, the Holy Spirit would also not speak on His own initiative. Jesus then begins to explain how the Helper would help and I would like to note just a couple of things during these brief thoughts. First of all, Jesus said that He would convict the world of sin. We often don't think of being convicted of sin as a provision of "help", but oh how much men need help from God in this matter. Absent this gracious ministry of the Helper we would be utterly overtaken and consumed by sin. Another title He gives to the Helper is the "Spirit of truth". As such, Jesus said that He, the Spirit of truth, would guide us into all truth and that He would glorify Christ. Our world is starved for truth. We ought to be thankful and overjoyed to know that the Spirit would guide us into truth. And as we are guided into truth, Jesus Christ, who is The Truth, will be glorified.
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